Paul A. Samuelson was a Nobel Prize-winning economist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Paul Samuelson papers span the years 1933 to 2010 and cover nearly all aspects of his long career. The collection is arranged in the following series: Audiovisual Materials, Awards, Committees and Projects, Correspondence, Printed Materials, Speeches and Interviews, Teaching Materials, and Unpublished Writings. Significant correspondents include Milton Friedman, Don Patinkin, and Robert Solow, and many other notable economists, Nobel prize winners, politicians, and scientists. Researchers will find materials representing Samuelson’s work on diverse topics of economic theory, including the history of economic thought (post-Keynesian economics, neoclassical economics, and thinkers such as Marx, Sraffa and Ricardo), financial economics, growth theory, international finance, inflation, stability, welfare economics, post-World War economic policies and stabilization, stochastic analysis, utility, monetary policy, Marxist economics, biological economics - including population and gender studies, thermodynamics, and mathematical economics. Finally, the Samuelson Papers also document his strong contributions to the U.S. government, especially his work for the Federal Reserve, and to federally-funded projects, professional committees and boards, and organizations and societies, beginning in the 1940s and continuing throughout his career.

The Paul A. Samuelson Papers span the years 1933 to 2010, and cover nearly all aspects of his long career. Materials are arranged in the original order maintained by Samuelson, and include his professional correspondence files; unpublished writings, notes, drafts and fragments; audiovisual materials; documents regarding awards, including the Nobel Prize; files relating to various grants, committees, and projects; teaching materials from his years at MIT; files of speeches; and publication files, including professional and mainstream media articles. Significant correspondents include Milton Friedman, Don Patinkin, and Robert Solow, as well as many other notable economists, Nobel prize winners, politicians, and scientists. Material can also be found on economic programs at institutions such as MIT, where Samuelson established a renowned economics faculty. Researchers will find materials representing Samuelson’s work on diverse topics of economic theory, including the history of economic thought (post-Keynesian economics, neoclassical economics, and thinkers such as Marx, Sraffa and Ricardo), financial economics, growth theory, international finance, inflation, stability, welfare economics, post-World War economic policies and stabilization, stochastic analysis, utility, monetary policy, Marxist economics, biological economics - including population and gender studies, thermodynamics, and mathematical economics. Samuelson's insights on many of these subjects serve as organizational themes for large sections in the Unpublished Writings Series in the collection. Finally, the Samuelson Papers also document his strong contributions to the U.S. government, especially his work for the Federal Reserve, and to federally-funded projects, professional committees and boards, and organizations and societies, beginning in the 1940s and continuing throughout his career.

The Correspondence Series spans Samuelson's entire career, beginning in the 1930s. It consists mainly of professional exchanges with his colleagues in the U.S. and other countries. There are also files of correspondence with a wide variety of political and academic figures, presses, and media organizations. There is frequent correspondence with President Kennedy, for whom he was an economic advisor. Besides the named folders that represent notable economists such as Milton Friedman, John Kenneth Galbraith, Franco Modigliani, Don Patinkin, and Robert Solow, there are general correspondence folders in which a variety of documents are chronologically arranged. There is also a large group of files relating to the publication of his textbooks. Additional correspondence can be found in almost all the other series. A more detailed documentation of the Correspondence Series and its correspondents can be found in the series description.

A large series of Unpublished Writings contains many folders of unpublished articles, extensive research notes, jotted-down insights, and other fragmentary writings. The earliest pieces appear to be a typescript of Samuelson's 1933 diary and writings on collective bargaining (1933-1934). The wide range of topics in economic theory as well as the history of economics reflects Samuelson's interests over many decades, beginning with his work on Marx and the Transformation Problem, and later on, focusing more specifically on financial economics. The unpublished writings also reveal that he also wrote extensively on population and gender studies, thermodynamics, and mathematics.

The equally large Printed Materials Series houses a nearly complete collection of Samuelson's published articles in addition to a few of his monographs. In some cases, article folders include extensive correspondence between Samuelson and his editors and publishers. There is a complete list of Samuelson's publications available to researchers in the library, but not every publication listed is present in the collection. Located in this series is a copy of the thesis that Samuelson wrote while he was at Harvard, which in 1947 was published as the well-known Foundations of Economic Analysis. Also present in this series are the many columns and articles he wrote for Newsweek in the 1960s and 1970s.

Other aspects of Samuelson's career can be found in course files which form the Teaching Materials Series, most of which contain reading lists and syllabi, and in the Committees and Projects Series, which contains information on his many consultancy roles, grant-funded projects, and professional service. Examples include projects for the Radiation Laboratory and the Rand Corporation, and contributions to government agencies such as the U.S. War Production Board and the Federal Reserve Board, as well as academic organizations such as the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Science and the Econometric Society.

The smallest series of the collection, the Awards Series contains materials relating to Samuelson's Nobel Prize in Economics in 1970 and his Medal of Science award in 1996. Files contain congratulatory letters and telegrams, and his outgoing correspondence to subsequent Nobel Prize winners. In contrast to this small series, the large Speeches and Interviews Series houses paper drafts or transcripts of nearly all of Samuelson's public presentations, amounting to over 400 lectures, speeches, and interviews. Some of these can also be found on recorded media in the Audiovisual Series.

The Audiovisual Materials Series features 320 cassettes from the commercially produced Economics Cassettes Series, a set of interviews with Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson on economics issues of the times. There are also a few tapes and cassettes of lectures and speeches by Samuelson. Items related to the topics and events represented in this series are also found in the Teaching Materials, Speeches and Interviews, and Awards Series. There is a DVD recording of the 2010 MIT memorial service which provides many images of Samuelson taken throughout his life, filling in for the absence of photographs in the collection. Original audiovisual materials are closed to use; listening or viewing copies may need to be made by staff for access. Please contact Research Services before coming to use this series.

Access to the Collection

Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection.

All or portions of this collection may be housed off-site in Duke University's Library Service Center. The library may require up to 48 hours to retrieve these materials for research use.

Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library to use this collection.

Conditions Governing Access note

[Original audiovisual materials are closed to use. Use of these materials may require production of listening or viewing copies. Please contact Research Services before coming to use this collection.]

Use & Permissions

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Chiefly made up of two sets of the Economics Cassette Series produced by Instructional Dynamics Incorporated (IDI) between 1968 and 1977, the Audiovisual Materials Series contains 191 cassette tape recordings featuring interviews with Paul Samuelson and 125 cassettes featuring interviews with Milton Friedman, discussing fiscal policy and other issues through their respective lenses of Keynesian and Monetarist economics. Many of the Friedman interviews listed here have been digitized by the Hoover Institution at Stanford and may be accessed online through its website on Friedman: http://hoohila.stanford.edu/friedman/ecs.php.

The series also includes open reel audio of two of Samuelson's lectures, a video response to a 1975 video lecture by Samuelson from a group of German students at the University of Cologne, and a film reel of Samuelson winning the Nobel Prize.

Conditions Governing Access Note

Original audiovisual materials are closed to use. Use of these materials may require production of listening or viewing copies. Please contact Research Services before coming to use this Series.

Correspondence, telegrams, newspaper clippings, invitations, some photographs, and other materials relating to Samuelson's winning of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics (1970). Also contains a file each on the Scanno Prize in Economy (1990) and the National Medal of Science (1996). The last award brought Samuelson to the White House during the Clinton presidency. Included in this series is Samuelson's correspondence, often in the form of congratulatory letters, with other Nobel laureates.

Files document Samuelson's work on MIT committees, outside grant applications, and his service to professional organizations from just after World War II until he passed away in 2009. The earliest material relates to post-war economics (with drafts of reports and correspondence by Friedman and others). The outside grant group includes National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) grant papers. The NIH grant contains his work on economic/biological analysis of population. The NSF grant contains Samuelson's work on economic theory related to stochastic processes and economic/biological mechanisms. The Irwin Friend group houses papers related to work on interest rates, the banking industry, economic growth and foreign direct investment. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) group includes correspondence and committee work related to NAS. Included is Samuelson's referee work as part of the Editorial Board of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Also in this series is an NAS study on motor vehicle emissions, material on the Alfred Sloan Foundation Book Committee, and information on the TIAA-CREF's annual "Paul A. Samuelson Award." Series is arranged alphabetically by project name.

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Book Committee, 1976-1990

Box 6

Committee on Economic Stability, 1947-1948

Box 6

Institute for Research on Poverty, 1976-1981

Box 6

Irwin Friend Study, University of Pennsylvania, 1966-1969

(1 of 4 folders)

Box 6

Irwin Friend Study, University of Pennsylvania, 1966-1969

(2-4 of 4 folders)

Box 7

Madow Committee, 1950-1952

Box 7

MIT Policy committee, 1964

Box 7

National Academy of Sciences:

Correspondence, 1975-2009

Box 7

Finance Committee, 1982-2009

Box 7

Membership, 1970

Box 7

Motor Vehicle Emissions project, 1970-1973

Box 7

Nominations, 1971-1995

Box 7

Proceedings NAS Editorial Board, 1971-1976

Box 8

National Science Board, Increasing the Nation's Use of the Social Sciences, circa 1969

Arranged in two subseries: correspondence with individuals and organizations, and correspondence related to his publications. Within the first, folders are arranged alphabetically, and the documents inside the folders are in reverse chronological order. Each lettered subseries begins with General Correspondence folders in which the documents are chronologically arranged. Following the General Correspondence file are the folders named either by correspondent, or by institution, topic, group or region. The second subgrouping is arranged by correspondence with publishers of his textbooks.

Includes Samuelson's professional correspondence not only with economists, but with organizations and professionals in other domains, including political figures such as Presidents John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. There are many notable economists represented in the series, including Sir John Hicks, Frank Knight, Don Patinkin, Milton Friedman, Franco Modigliani, and others. Scholars from other disciplines, among them Noam Chomsky and Alfred J. Lotka are also present. Correspondence ranges from letters in the 1930s by Sir John Hicks and Frank Knight to posthumous correspondence on special journal issues about Samuelson's life and work. Prolific correspondents represented in the collection include Peter Bernstein, John Chipman, and Don Patinkin. Along with the letters, some folders contain drafts of articles or research, usually with Samuelson's enclosed comments or feedback; one of the earliest documents is a 1935 exam given in Jacob Viner’s economics course at the University of Chicago. Other folders include correspondence by several authors on specific subjects such as "Latane, Tobin and Markowitz on risk and uncertainty in portfolio management." There are also folders containing documents related to particular organizations, publication, and countries or regions such as China, India, Korea and South America.

General Correspondence: A, 1945-2009

(1-2 of 5 folders)

Box 9

General Correspondence: A, 1945-2009

(3-5 of 5 folders)

Box 10

Adams, Robert, 1950-2000

Box 10

Addison, Wesley, 1957-1961

Box 10

Ahmad, Syed, 1967-1991

Box 10

Air Force: Cambridge Research Center, 1951

Box 10

Aldis, Owen, 1960-1962

Box 10

Allais, Maurice, 1953-2008

Box 10

Allen, Loring, 1981-1983

Box 10

Allied Van Lines, 1982

Box 10

American Bankers Association, 1963-1967

Box 11

American Economic Review, 1941-2000

(3 folders)

Box 11

American Institute for Economic Research, 1961-1962

Box 11

American Philosophical Society, 1958-2008

Box 11

American Statistical Association, 1943-1950

Box 11

Amir, Shmuel, 1990-1992

Box 11

Arbitrage Mutual Fund, 1969-1972

Box 11

Archives, Duke, 1992-2006

Box 11

Arnold, Roger, 1988-1991

Box 11

Arrow, Kenneth, 1947-2008

Box 12

Arsenis, Gerry, 1963

Box 12

Ashbrook, Art, 1942-1995

Box 12

General Correspondence: B, 1939-2010

(1-5 of 16 folders)

Box 12

General Correspondence: B, 1939-2010

(6-11 of 16 folders)

Box 13

General Correspondence: B, 1939-2010

(12-16 of 16 folders)

Box 14

Bach, Dr. G. L. (American Economics Association), 1952-1976

Box 14

Bain, Joe, 1941-1991

Box 14

Balanced Budget Amendment, 1992

Box 15

Balassa, Bela, 1962-1991

Box 15

Balderston, Dr. C. Canby (Board of Governors), 1956-1967

Box 15

Banerjee, Kali, 1977-2000

(2 folders)

Box 15

Baumol, William J., 1949-2008

Box 15

Becker, Gary, 1957-1993

Box 15

Beckerman, Martin, 1950-1991

Box 15

Benjamin, William A., 1960-1964

Box 15

Bennion, Dr. Edward G., 1944-1961

Box 15

Bentick, B. L., 1980

Box 15

Bergson, Abe, 1942-2005

Box 16

Bernadotte, Count Graf, 1979-1989

Box 16

Bernstein, Peter, 1948-2009

(3 folders)

Box 16

Bhagwati, Prof. Jagdish, 1957-2008

(2 folders)

Box 16

Bicksler, Jim, 1968-1992

Box 17

Bidard, Christian, 1983-2007

Box 17

Bilanz, Switzerland, 1990

Box 17

Birdsall, William C., 1975-1976

Box 17

Blanchard, Olivier, 1984-2009

Box 17

Blaug, Mark, 1987-2008

Box 17

Blinder, Alan, 1974-2009

Box 17

Blough, Roy (Columbia), 1947-1983

Box 17

Blume, Marshall, 1989-1990

Box 17

Board of Economic Consultants, 1968

Box 17

Bodie, Zvi, 1979-2009

Box 17

Bogle, John (Vanguard), 1990-2009

Box 17

Boston Foundation, 1984-2007

Box 18

Boston Globe, 1991

Box 18

Boulding, Kenneth, 1948-1951

Box 18

Brems, Hans, 1960-1991

Box 18

Brittain, John, 1946-1962

Box 18

Bronfenbrenner, Martin, 1943-1992

(2 folders)

Box 18

Brookings Institute, 1954-1998

Box 18

Buchard, John, 1948-1950

Box 18

Burden, William, 1966-1985

Box 18

Bureau of the Budget, 1947-1953

Box 18

Burk, Monroe, 1960-1961

Box 18

Burmeister, Edwin, 1965-2006

(2 folders)

Box 19

Burns, Arthur, 1946-1965

Box 19

Business Today, 1993

Box 19

General Correspondence: C, 1941-2009

(3 of 11 folders)

Box 19

General Correspondence: C, 1941-2009

(4-9 of 11 folders)

Box 20

General Correspondence: C, 1941-2009

(10-11 of 11 folders)

Box 21

Canadian Journal of Economics, 1967-1971

Box 21

Carter, Jimmy, 1976-1979

Box 21

Catchings, Waddill, 1952-1953

Box 21

CBS Network, Feb. 19, 1961

Box 21

Center for Economic Development, Monetary Policy Committee, 1947-1964

Box 21

Center for Real Estate Development, 1985-1990

Box 21

Chakravarty, Sukhamoy, 1961-1990

Box 21

Chang, Nelson (Reynolds and Co.), 1959-1965

Box 21

China, 1954-2008

Box 22

Chipman, John, 1950-2009

(3 folders)

Box 22

Chomsky, Noam, 1974-1990

Box 22

Chow, Gregory, 1956-1997

Box 22

Christian Science Monitor, 1959-1991

Box 22

Christenson, Charles, 1973-1988

Box 22

Clinton for President (includes correspondence from Clinton), 1992-1998

Chiefly correspondence with McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, particularly regarding editions of Economics and Readings in Economics. This smaller subseries contains correspondence related to Samuelson's textbooks: Economics, Foundations of Economic Analysis and some notes and fragments that were found inside these books. Also includes some materials about other books including the Collected Scientific Papers of Paul A. Samuelson, and Linear Programming and Economic Analysis.

Collected Scientific Papers of Paul A. Samuelson

MIT Press correspondence, 1963-2010

Box 79

Reviews, 1965-1970

Box 79

Economics, 1946-2008

(2 folders)

Mike Elia's sales reports, 1971-1973

Box 80

Newsletter, McGraw-Hill, 1969-1983

Box 80

Samuelson/Scott User comments, 1977

Box 80

Reprint requests, 1975

Box 80

Promotion, 1970-1975

(1-3 of 3 folders)

Box 80

Criticisms of the textbook, 1947-1997

(2 folders)

Box 80

New York Times book review: Speaking of Books: Samuelson's 'Economics,' by Bennett Kremen, 1970

Contains a near-complete collection of Samuelson's published writings, chiefly in article form. Arranged in three subseries: Articles (published in magazines and newspapers), Books, and Publications. The latter is arranged in the original order maintained by Samuelson. A complete bibliography of his publications, including Newsweek articles, is available in the Special Collections Library and is keyword-searchable; however, some titles listed may not be present in the collection. Contact Research Services for assistance in using this series.

Includes original and photocopied articles written by Samuelson (and translated into Portuguese) for Homen, a Brazilian magazine; as well as articles for Newsweek, a regular column that he shared with economists Milton Friedman and Henry Wallich. Some folders also include reader feedback or other items.

The list of Samuelson's Newsweek columns titles and dates of publication is available in Duke's Special Collections Library and is keyword searchable. Consult the Newsweek List to learn which titles are available. Contact Research Services for assistance in using this subseries.

Contains versions of some of Samuelson's published books; includes a copy of his Ph.D. dissertation and some early personal editions of his textbooks with his notations. Arranged chronologically. Also included are inserts originally laid into copies of his textbooks.

Includes published copies of Samuelson's articles, interviews, and speeches, arranged chronologically in numerical order. Content in folders vary: some folders contain only a clipping of a newspaper article mentioning Samuelson or his work, while other folders include extensive correspondence between Samuelson and periodical editors regarding an article he submitted for publication. There is a small amount of audiovisual material, such as cassette tapes, included in this subseries. There is some overlap with the Articles subseries and with the Speeches and Interviews Series.

A complete list of Samuelson's publications is available in the library and is keyword searchable. Although the list is complete, not every publication is present in the collection. Also, some list numbers have been skipped. Consult the Publications List to learn which titles are available. Contact Research Services for assistance in using this subseries.

Publications, 1930s-1949

Publications List numbers 1-99.

Box 93

Publications, 1949-1957

Publications List numbers 100-195.

Box 94

Publications, 1957-1960

Publications List numbers 196-268.

Box 95

Publications, 1960-1963

Publications List numbers 270-331.

Box 96

Publications, 1963-1965

Publications List numbers 332-424.

Box 97

Publications, 1965-1968

Publications List numbers 425-537.

Box 98

Publications, 1968-1970

Publications List numbers 538-629.

Box 99

Publications, 1970-1971

Publications List numbers 632-710.

Box 100

Publications, 1971-1973

Publications List numbers 711-784.

Box 101

Publications, 1973-1974

Publications List numbers 785-849.

Box 102

Publications, 1974-1976

Publications List numbers 849a-898.

Box 103

Publications, 1976-1977

Publications List numbers 900-1007.

Box 104

Publications, 1977-1981

Publications List numbers 1008-1059.

Box 105

Publications, 1981-1983

Publications List numbers 1060-1139a.

Box 106

Publications, 1983-1984

Publications List numbers 1139b-1204.

Box 107

Publications, 1984-1987

Publications List numbers 1205-1275.

Box 108

Publications, 1987-1989

Publications List numbers 1276-1367.

Box 109

Publications, 1989-1990

Publications List numbers 1368-1467.

Box 110

Publications, 1990-1991

Publications List numbers 1468-1546.

Box 111

Publications, 1991-1993

Publications List numbers 1547-1645.

Box 112

Publications, 1993-1994

Publications List numbers 1646-1746.

Box 113

Publications, 1994-1995

Publications List numbers 1747-1847.

Box 114

Publications, 1995-1997

Publications List numbers 1848-1959.

Box 115

Publications, 1997-1999

Publications List numbers 1960-2068.

Box 116

Publications, 1999-2000

Publications List numbers 2069-2189.

Box 117

Publications, 2001-2003

Publications List numbers 2190-2305.

Box 118

Publications, 2003-2006

Publications List numbers 2306-2445, as well as forthcoming titles 26.04, 28.04, and 29.02.

Includes material related to Samuelson's public speeches, magazine interviews, and other events. Common themes are the global economy, Keynesian economics, inflation, debt, and political influences on economics (including his thoughts on various leaders such as Presidents Bush and Clinton). Many interviews are with foreign magazines or news stations, and have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and other languages; these frequently include Samuelson's thoughts on the economics of the host country. Other speeches are much more personal, including his remarks at family events, reunions, birthday parties, and funerals.

Files are arranged chronologically. The amount of material varies: files may include correspondence between the inviting organization and Samuelson, Samuelson's script from the event, official transcripts (some edited) of the speech or interview, published accounts or news clippings from the event, and other ephemera. Some speech or interview files include audiovisual material such as cassette tapes, DVDs, or VHS videotapes.

Several recordings of Samuelson's public presentations, possibly including versions of speeches in this series, can be found in the Audiovisual Material Series.

Conditions Governing Access note

[Original audiovisual materials are closed to use. Use of these materials may require production of listening or viewing copies. Please contact Research Services before coming to use this collection.]

50. "The U.S. and Japanese Economies in the Remaining Reagan Years," Public Lecture to Center for Japan-U.S. Business and Economic Studies, NYU Stern School of Business, 4 December 1985

Box 120

51. "Recommended Economic Policy Alternatives and Forecasts for the U.S. Economy Through 1988, with Special Reference to Japan-U.S. Relationships," Report on grant from the Japanese National Institute for Research Advancement, December 1985